Devices for packing and shipping products and/or containers of products are known. Such devices are available in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and styles. Often a package is designed to contain a number of different containers, such as several containers of a product, in a single package for delivery from one location to another, such as from a manufacturer to a wholesaler or retail seller. Sometimes the shipping package is also used to display the product once the shipping package is opened at the retail seller.
In many cases, the package used to ship containers of product from the manufacturer to the retailer is of such type that the containers need to be removed from the package prior to displaying the containers in the retail environment. The need to remove the containers form the package is often time and labor intensive. Additionally, a separate display package may be required to display the package. The display package may be a secondary package inside the shipping package, often resulting in higher costs for the containers.
Where a package, and the containers it holds, is suitable for transitioning directly from shipping to retail display, the size of the package can be an important factor. Shelf space at the retail environment is very valuable and the retail package must be of proper size to conform to the limited space allocated for display of the package. The need for smaller display packages is increasing as products compete for increasingly limited shelf space.
The trend toward decreasing the size of the display package poses a problem for the combination shipping package which transforms into a display package. A shipping package must conform to the dynamics required to safely transport product from the manufacturer to the retail environment. The size of the shipping package is important as this package must meet common length and width requirements to be effectively palletized. If the size of the shipping package is too small, it will be become increasingly difficult to palletize and to interlock the layers of shipping packages in the pallet. This will effect the strength and durability of the pallet of product in distribution.
A smaller shipper also effects the requirements of the secondary packaging machinery at the manufacturing plant for the product. Most secondary packaging machines are designed for speed based on the number of shipping packages produced per minute. If the size of the display package causes the size and container count of the shipper to decrease, it may require a new secondary packaging machine to meet the speed requirements of the container line.
A smaller shipper is generally more costly than a larger shipper. If the size of the display package causes the shipper to decrease in both size and container count, it may result in a more cost per container for the combination shipping package and display package.
In addition to a trend toward smaller display packages, there is also a need for a display package to offer full view and access of the container to the consumer. Many display packages which also serve as shipping packages restrict the full view and access of the containers due to use of sides and lids of material, such as cardboard. In order to provide greater view and access to the containers, the cardboard material of such shipping packages must be heavily modified such as by cutting, tearing or otherwise removing one or more flaps, lids or other portions of the package. Such modification of shipping packages is inconvenient and often results in a display device which is aesthetically displeasing and which displays the containers in an undesirable manner. Such cutting of the cardboard to prepare the display may also result in damaged containers that are accidentally cut when the shipping package is modified to become a display package.
A combination shipping package which transitions to a display package usually offers a cost savings by elimination of a secondary display package and a secondary packaging line specific for a display package.
There remains a need for a cost effective low-bulk package which is capable of shipping a plurality of containers and transitions to a plurality of smaller display packages without a need for any cutting or tearing of the cardboard or other fairly rigid material of the package, and provides full consumer view and access to the containers, yet also meets the strength, durability, palletizing, and general industry standards for shipping packages of like containers to market.
Without limiting the scope of the invention, a brief summary of various embodiments of the invention is set forth below. Additional details of the summarized embodiments of the invention and/or additional embodiments of the invention may be found in the Detailed Description of the Invention below.
A brief abstract of the technical disclosure in the specification is provided as well for the purposes of complying with 37 C.F.R. 1.72.
In one embodiment, the invention is directed to a container package assembly which includes a plurality of trays for supporting containers thereon, a top pad which is placed over the containers and at least one layer of encapsulating film which at least partially covers the combination top pad, containers and trays. The package may be used for shipping and, optionally, for retail display.
In at least one embodiment of the invention, the container package assembly comprises two or more trays which are positioned horizontally adjacent to one another. A plurality of containers are disposed on each tray and a top pad extends atop the containers over at least a portion of each of the trays. The trays, containers and top pad are at least partially encapsulated by a packaging film such as shrink-wrap, stretch-wrap, plastic or other type of thin pliable membrane. The top pad provides stability to the individual containers positioned on the trays during distribution of the shipping package as well as maintaining stability of the entire package by structurally linking the two independent trays.
The container package assemblies of the present invention desirably are sufficiently stable and strong enough to cope with the rigors of shipping as well as being of a size and bulk which allows the package assemblies to be placed in a retail setting without interfering with the consumer""s ability to view and access the containers contained therein.
The container package assemblies have sufficient strength and dimensional characteristics to form interlocking layers of packages in a pallet and may be transitioned to a plurality of package assemblies which are sized to be placed in the limited shelf space of the retail setting.
Typically, the trays comprise a fairly rigid horizontal support surface. Desirably, the trays may have one or more vertical sides or walls to help retain the containers on the horizontal support surface. These side walls function to retain the containers on the horizontal support surfaces during the packaging process, during distribution, and during the transfer of the display package to the retail shelf. The walls may be of uniform height, may be tapered, or may have other configurations.
The inventive container package assembly may include one or more vertical levels of trays and containers. Where multiple vertical levels of trays are utilized, a single top pad may be placed atop the top layer of containers. It is also within the scope of the invention for a top pad to be placed between each layer of containers and the bottom surface of a vertically adjacent tray.
The top pad, in accordance with the invention, typically has a surface area equal to or less than the area of the tray positioned thereunder.
Some embodiments of the invention include encapsulating film which encapsulates less than the entire assembly of trays, containers and top pad.
The invention is also directed to a method for packaging a plurality of containers comprising the steps of providing a first support member and a second support member adjacent the first support member, the first and second support members having a plurality of containers disposed thereon, placing a top pad on top of the containers, the top pad extending over at least a portion of each of the containers and at least partially encapsulating the support members, the containers and the top pad with a film. Typically, the support members will have three sidewalls and an open side.
Further aspects of the invention will become apparent form the detailed description which follows.